tailieunhanh - Báo cáo y học: " Cancer as a dynamical phase transition "

Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học quốc tế cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài:Cancer as a dynamical phase transition | Davies et al. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 2011 8 30 http content 8 1 30 RESEARCH THEORETICAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICAL MODELLING Open Access Cancer as a dynamical phase transition Paul CW Davies1 Lloyd Demetrius 2 3 and Jack A Tuszynski4 5 Correspondence jackt@ualberta. ca department of Experimental Oncology Cross Cancer Institute Cross Cancer Institute 11560 University Avenue Edmonton AB T6G 1Z2 Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article 2 BioMed Central Abstract This paper discusses the properties of cancer cells from a new perspective based on an analogy with phase transitions in physical systems. Similarities in terms of instabilities and attractor states are outlined and differences discussed. While physical phase transitions typically occur at or near thermodynamic equilibrium a normal-to-cancer NTC transition is a dynamical non-equilibrium phenomenon which depends on both metabolic energy supply and local physiological conditions. A number of implications for preventative and therapeutic strategies are outlined. Introduction Cancer onset as a phase transition Research into cancer initiation and progression has been overwhelmingly directed towards the biochemistry genomics and cell biology of cancer 1 . By contrast far less attention has been focused on the biophysics of the cancer state. While the field of cancer research is vast in terms of factual and empirical knowledge it appears to have a dearth of organizing principles and quantitative characterizations of the sort familiar in the physical sciences. In this paper we attempt to redress this imbalance by bringing insights from the physical sciences to shed a different light on the problem of cancer and specifically the transitions from healthy to cancer states and from localized tumors to the metastatic state. A recent perspective paper 2 has eloquently argued that physics has produced the theoretical framework necessary to understand dynamic .